Making Time for God

Religion and I have a complicated relationship. I was raised a Roman Catholic. As I got older I’ve attended service for Born Again Christian groups. I still go to Catholic church during the major holidays but for the most part I don’t anymore. I may not be perfect in the sense that I am not religious, but I do believe in God and I try to maintain a relationship with him in the ways that I can.

Prayer is something that I may not do in the formal sense, with recited prayers at specific times or whatnot, but I do pray. I can’t say how often because it depends on the day: sometimes something catches my attention and I say a silent prayer in thanks or for assistance (not just for myself but for others as well). I was also brought up with the idea that your work can be a form of prayer, that you glorify God with your work. I do my best to live up to that whenever I can. I say whenever because obviously, I am not perfect, and I do make mistakes from time to time.

One thing that I try to do is to read the Bible and meditate on the word of God. I have a daily reading guide that has inspirational thoughts that guide you with the readings assigned for the day. I also have a daily devotional that I use along with it.

I wish I could say that I read the Bible daily but there are days when I don’t. I make up for it on the days that I do by catching up on readings I missed on the days that I do read the Bible. I’ve never passed on reading for more than a couple of days though, so I don’t miss or need to catch up on much.

Reading the Bible has been good for me. It helps me to deal with the jumbled thoughts in my head because there is always something in it that I can apply to my life and that has been very good for me. It helps me feel that I am never alone, that God is there to encourage me and keep me striving to do good, even when there are days when I feel less than it.

If you ever had the chance to look at my Bible, you’d find that it is highlighted like crazy with the lines that I found that I could relate to. There are also special markings on the ones that have become my favorites. This Bible was given to me by a coworker of mine way back in 2001, just before I moved from the Metro to the province. It is one of my prized possessions that I’ve had with me through several moves through the years. I’ve gotten older and my eyesight is not what it used to be. The small text in the Bible has started to become a challenge to read but I still use this Bible. It’s been with me through a lot and I plan to stick with it for as long as I can. One day I hope to hand it over to my niece for her to use as a guide when she becomes an adult herself.

I hope that I can finish reading the Bible this year. I always intend to read everything all year but never really finish. I am always close, but never really done. Hopefully this year I can do it.